TEMPE, Ariz. – The Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Surprise, Arizona, will serve as host to the culminating event of the fall portion of the college tennis season, as the nation’s best singles and doubles players compete in the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, with matches beginning Wednesday, November 7th, and concluding on Sunday, November 11th.
In its second year, having replaced the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships is the lone event on the collegiate tennis calendar to feature competitors from all five divisions (NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and JUCO) playing in the same tournament.
The Oracle ITA National Fall Championships will feature a 64-player singles draw for men and women, while men’s and women’s doubles will consist of a 32-team draw. Players qualified for the tournament through designated placings at earlier ITA National Championships and the ITA Regional Championships. You can see a full breakdown of the selection criteria on the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships event page.
The women’s singles draw features seven players in the preseason Top 10 national rankings, led by North Carolina’s Makenna Jones, who holds a preseason No. 2 ranking. The women’s doubles field is comprised of five Top 10-ranked duos, including 2018 NCAA National Doubles Champions, Eden Richardson and Jessica Golovin of LSU, and the preseason No. 1-ranked team from Duke, Kaitlyn McCarthy and Ellyse Hamlin.
The men’s singles draw is highlighted by No. 1-ranked Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest. Chrysochos reached the finals in singles and doubles of the 2017 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships and claimed the doubles title with Skander Mansouri. A pair of Top 10-ranked players from the Pac-12 Conference, Thomas Laurent of Oregon and Brandon Holt of USC, are other notable entrants. Holt is also competing in doubles with teammate Riley Smith, and the Trojan duo entered 2018 ranked No. 2 in the nation. Three other Top 10 doubles teams will also be competing in Surprise, with South Alabama’s Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol, Mississippi State’s Giovanni Oradini and Niclas Braun and Columbia’s Jack Mingjie Lin and Will Matheson all in the draw.
Recently, it was announced that the men’s and women’s singles champions will receive main draw wildcards into a 2019 Oracle Challenger Series tournament.
The 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships men’s and women’s singles finals will stream live on ESPN3 and the ESPN App on Sunday, November 11th, beginning at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT, with the women’s final. The singles championships will re-air on ESPNU on Tuesday, November 13th, at 3 p.m. EDT/12 p.m. EDT.
Draws, schedule of play, daily recaps and a photo gallery can be found on the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships event page. Live scoring via Tennis Ticker will be available, while TempuZ will provide live streaming coverage from two courts at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex. Links to both live scoring and streaming are also available on the event page. You can also follow the conversation on Twitter by following @ITA_Tennis and @OracleTennis and using the hashtag #ITAFallNats.
